Fall Gardening

After a sweltering summer of humidity, the fall is a welcomed seasonal change! Fall is my favorite time of year, a time of warm hardy food and crisp air.  For those new to my blog, this is my attemp to live off the land, even through my land is only a half acre.I just wanted to post a 10 step guide to Fall planting. It is too late now to plant anything besides onions. But maybe this will help you guys out for next year.

1. Look at planting Dates. Planting dates vary from region to region and what crop you want to plant. This is my favorite publication on planting dates. It is from the University of Georgia so is has what seed varieties that work best here in Georgia specifically
   http://www.caes.uga.edu/applications/publications/files/html/C963/C963VegeChart.pdf
2. Decide what you want to plant- This year I devised on root veggies- Carrots, Radishes, greens: Kale, Lettuce, Cabbage, Spinach. Country Plants: Collards, Turnips. Tree veggies: Cauliflower and broccoli
3. Prepare Soil- If you are just starting out, you can check out my post on soil prep (march). There are no crops in fall gardens that are heavy feeders, you can fertilization again but I did not.
4. Decide what you will plant form seed vs. Transplant-Some plants do better from transplant and some don't. Carrots and Radishes must be planted from seed, but broccoli want to be from a transplant. Everything else is just your choice. I recommend you TRY all (besides broccoli) from seed! Its cheaper and more rewarding.
5. Mulch- Mulch cuts down on watering, weeds, pest and keeps the roots warm - Since I use plastic mulch, this is laid down before I plant. In my case I just used what was already there from my summer garden. You can practically any substance from wood chips, start. Hay, or newspaper- whatever is cheap.
 6. Plant- SEEDS-Depending on the spacing guideline there are two different ways I do it. Carrots and Radishes: these only have 1-4 inch spacing because of this is sprinkle the seeds in a line. Make a furrow in the soil (I had to cut lines in my plastic). Sprinkle the seed along the line. Cover with soil and water soon. Everything Else- all the other fall crops fall in 6-18 inch spacing category for these a poke holes in the plastic where I want the plants, dig a small whole with my fingers, drop in 3-6 seeds, cover with soil and water. TRANSPLANTS: When buying transplants, get packs that have more seedlings in each space. This saves money! Make sure you are gentle when pulling apart the roots systems. water!
7.Water- You must keep you seeds moist: water every day for at least 1 week. 


 (below: example of multiple plants)

8. (3 weeks later) Thin Seeds- Once your seeds have sprouted andd have 2 true leaves (not the first 2) you need to thin them out. Carrots and Radishes: Just pull up the seedlings fr the proper placing. For all the others- just leave one healthy seedling in the whole. I hate this part it feels like seedling abortion.
9. Plant transplants for seeds that did not make it. Now you can see what seeds made it. None of my spinach, Lettuce, and cabbage made it from seed, so I just panted them from transplants three weeks later.
10. watch and eat- yum          

Baby Carrots

Pictures: Garden Plots